The Life of a Drone Pilot: No Joysticks, but Plenty of Velcro

A rare interview with one who fought in Afghanistan -- from a base in Nevada

Love it or hate it, drone warfare is here to stay. In fact, it's a way of life for more and more of our Air Force. In a rare interview, recently retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Black told his side of the story, sitting down with his hometown newspaper in New Mexico to dish about his time behind the joystick. Or, as it turns out, the keyboard. We gathered a few of the most telling quotes for you.

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There aren't a lot of rules yet

"It was like the Wild West again. It was a brand new weapons system, no regulations."

The system is not as advanced as the new Xbox. Or even the Commodore 64.

"To this day we're flying the prototype. Everything is on a keyboard... Everybody calls it a video game, but it's not that good."

Some of it is held together by Velcro -- literally

"The trigger on the original aircraft, you're getting ready to fire a missile and then hit one of two buttons... But if you hit the wrong one, it was on the wrong side of the stick, you shut the engine down. So we put Velcro on that switch to avoid the problem."

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There is a lot of waiting

"It's hours and days of boredom punctuated by a few moments of stark terror."

A shocking amount of people work on each drone

"For every Predator, it takes 175 people to keep it airborne for 24 hours. There are a zillion eyes looking always.

Fighting the Afghanistan war out of Nevada is extremely strange

"You're in the middle of a fire fight, your shift ends and your relief opens the door and walks in and you wonder, 'Where am I?' It's surreal... I wasn't in Afghanistan. My family lived here and I'd fly home on the weekends."